No. 17 Cal holds on to beat Saint Mary's

BERKELEY, Calif.(AP) -- Freshman Layshia Clarendon hit a go-ahead
jumper with 48 seconds left and a free throw with 7 seconds
remaining and No. 17 California overcame a cold shooting night
to beat Saint Mary's 68-65 on Tuesday for its fifth straight win
in the series.

Tifa Puletasi missed a 3-pointer from the top of the arc as the
buzzer sounded for Saint Mary's, which was trying to beat a
ranked team for the first time since Nov. 17, 2000, a 74-63 win
over Stanford.

It was far from a pretty tuneup for the Golden Bears (2-0)
before Sunday's highly anticipated showdown with No. 8 Baylor at
Haas Pavilion - 11 months after these teams were supposed to
play. The Baylor team couldn't make it to the Bay Area last
December because of weather.

Natasha Vital had 17 points, six rebounds and three steals to
lead Cal and freshmen DeNesha Stallworth and Talia Caldwell each
added 10 points and eight rebounds. Clarendon finished with 11
points.

"We'll take it any way we can get it. It's not pretty," Cal
coach Joanne Boyle said. "Throughout the game we were rattled
and had a lack of poise. With a young team, we have to get
better at that."

Kate Gaze hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put Saint Mary's ahead
64-59 with 4:30 left before Cal rallied. Gaze finished with 10
points but also six of her team's 24 turnovers. Katie Batlin led
the Gaels (1-1) with 12 points, six rebounds and three assists.

"That was fun," Saint Mary's coach Paul Thomas said. "First
thing I said when walked into locker room was, 'That was a fun
game.' There was coaching going on. There was playing going on."

Alexis Gray-Lawson made two free throws with 2:20 left to give
Cal the lead, then Jontelle Smith's free throw with 1:53 to play
tied the game at 65.

It was quite a change from the tough night Saint Mary's endured
the last time it played in Berkeley. Gray-Lawson scored 15 of
her 19 points during a 35-1 second-half run in the Bears' 85-44
victory, including scoring eight straight during one stretch.

"We're going to have to be a step above where we were tonight to
have a chance," Boyle said.

Louella Tomlinson, coming off a triple double in the Gaels'
opener, had eight points and five rebounds before fouling out
with 2:20 remaining. Having her on the bench hurt Saint Mary's.

The Gaels' crisp ball movement kept the Bears off balance much
of the game and created open looks on the perimeter, but the
turnovers cost them too many chances.

"We were more than in it. We were winning," Thomas said. "Our
kids feel that way. We were winning and they felt they had
control of the game even up until the very end, and you have a
couple of unfortunate things happen."

Gray-Lawson shot 3-for-14 for Cal, which opened the season with
a 100-43 rout of Idaho State on Sunday but never looked in sync.
The Bears missed all seven of their 3-point tries Tuesday and
shot 36.5 percent overall.

Cal's tallest player, 6-foot-5 Rama N'diaye, is still recovering
from an arthroscopic cleanup procedure on her troublesome right
knee before the season. N'diaye missed much of last season
following reconstructive surgery on the same knee after tearing
the anterior cruciate ligament during Cal's 2008 first-round
NCAA tournament victory against San Diego.

But the Bears have been able to better handle her absence with
much more depth this season than they had last year.